Salalah, August 27 - It is an opportunity for the budding writers to promote themselves and their books at Salalah Tourism Festival (STF) by having some arrangement with the book publishers, who are readily offering their stalls to keep books, sell and sign over them to make it and exclusive opportunity for the buyers.
There is one such publisher who is not only offering his stall to the young Omani writers he is also promoting them to get their books published at his publishing house Borsat el Kotob. He has set a good example by publishing 12 Omani writers’ books in seven years.
Eshraq al Nahdi, a young writer, who got her third book published in a quick succession, finds the owner of the publishing house Adel Metwaly an encouragement for the new writers.
“New writers need encouragement, support and motivation, which all the writers are getting at Borsat el Kotob. Metwaly is open to keep our books at his stall and explains the basics of coming out of a book,” she said.
Eshraq signed her third book Kharavget (traditional game for five stones), which contains 13 stories based mainly on Dhofar. Her two earlier books Al Ahmer and Rocasia have got very good response from the readers. She admits to have studied a lot to develop writing skill and ideas to work on.
“All my ideas are exclusive. I connected them through my present and past, though some of them have outlook for future also.”
To make it a representative Dhofari book, Eshraq has used some words, which are used only in Dhofar “to save those words from being extinct and let the readers feel the real flow of ideas… the ideas are based on rewriting the history, day-to-day happenings and there are many things related to our culture.”
Another writer who exhibited his books at Borsat el Kotob stall is Mohammed Ahmed Jeddad. His book Al Hogari has 10 stories, which have touched mainly relationship issues. He is very happy that his a book has been published.
“I am finding good readership for my book. People are reading the book and calling either to congratulate or to give some suggestion. I welcome both as I need encouragement and suggestions to improve my writing skills,” he said. Three more writers took part in the book exhibition to introduce themselves to the readers and signed books to those who wanted to buy them.
Kaushalendra Singh
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